Veteran Bisons swimmer Ella Howe knows what it takes to succeed on the biggest stages. A Canada West gold medalist in the 50-metre freestyle, she's won five medals over the last two conference championships, has been a nationals qualifier in multiple seasons, and attended Canadian Olympic Trials a year ago.
 
Howe is one of ten Bisons (five males, five females) currently auto-qualified for U SPORTS Championships from March 6-8 in Toronto, with top ten times in the country in both the 50 and 100 free. She reached new heights in the former during the 2024 Canada West Championships, setting a new school record of 25.46 seconds (short course).
 
That time broke a nine-year record previously held by program great Kimberly Moors.
 
Howe embraces Manitoba's intense twice-a-day training, constantly finding ways to lead by example, all while keeping a core value in mind: having fun!
 
"At the beginning of the year, we all went around in a circle, and everyone said something they wanted to bring to the team. The thing I said, was I wanted everybody to know that you can still have fun while working hard," said the third-year.
 
"I feel like sometimes a lot of athletes lose that in their training. They think to go fast, you can't have fun. A fast swimmer is a happy swimmer, I always think that."
 
Sophomore backstroke specialist Eric Dupre echoes Howe's sentiments. A back-to-back nationals qualifier, he's developed a friendly rivalry with some of his teammates, but it's all in good fun, bringing out the best in everyone.
 
"In practice it's the exact same thing as when we're in races, trying to one-up all the other guys. There's no hard feelings whatsoever whenever one of us will beat the other. That was the goal from the start of the season. I remember I'd mentioned in meetings that I wanted to have lots of friendly rivalries. It's been a goal and we've been succeeding," he said.
 
"[Swimming] is a really tough sport to do, being so individual, so it's nice to have a really good team supporting you. I really like doing the practice sets, they're lots of fun. We do them all together lots of the time. It's a nice break from school honestly."


 
Despite a challenging course load with a civil engineering focus, Dupre – who specialized in the 800 and 1500-metre distance freestyle prior to university – has shone in 2024-25.
 
At the Canada West Championships, he shattered a 14-year school record in the 200-metre backstroke (short course), touching the wall in 2:01.69. He now holds the program record in both the 200 short and long course in the discipline.
 
Dupre's time at CanWest also auto-qualified him for nationals. He did so in memorable fashion, excelling in two other events in the same session.
"I didn't know that I'd broken the record, but I did know that I made the U SPORTS cut. That was a pretty hard session for me. I did the 200 back first, which I was going all-in for. But then I also had the 200 free right after, and then I was on the freestyle relay. It was kind of hard to keep those other two events out of my mind during the 200 back, but I think I did a good job of it. It was enough. I made my time, so I was happy," he reflected.
 
"From my background doing the distance freestyle before, I have a pretty good back half, and my endurance throughout the whole race was already pretty good going into it. Mainly it's just working on a lot of technique and strength and power."
 
With 58 percent of their roster already qualified for nationals, Howe and the Herd have embraced a "small but mighty" mindset.
 
Along with the individual program record breakers, Kelsey Fillion (500, 100, 200m freestyle, 50, 100, butterfly), Hannah Schanel (50m free), Emma Mitchell (400m individual medley), Shea Guest (50m backstroke), Andriy Usan (50, 100m butterfly), Rhade Kostelnyk (500, 100m breaststroke), Ty Unrau (50m freestyle, 100m breaststroke) and Tam Doan (50m breaststroke) have punched their ticket to the big dance.
 
"Our team, although we are not a big team compared those on deck when we go to meets, we have a lot of quality swimmers," Howe said. "Every year we continue to have swimmers on the team that specialize in their events. It's really good."
 
"Working hard has always been enjoyable. I like the feeling of giving it everything that I have with my teammates," added Dupre.
 
"The whole thing for us in practice is to train how you race. If we can mimic the races in practice, it's the best thing we can do."